Rammasun was mild in comparison to Haiyan, a record-breaking typhoon that left more than 7,300 people dead or missing. So far, officials have blamed 20 deaths on Rammasun, mainly due to falling trees and power lines. However, the toll could have been much worse. Rammasun passed within 60 kilometers (40 miles) of Manila, a capital city of 12 million people, but the storm’s eyewall collapsed as it neared the city, limiting winds to about 32 kilometers (20 miles) per hour at the Manila airport. Nevertheless, Rammasun is still among the most powerful typhoons on record to pass so close to Manila. With the memory of Haiyan still fresh, the approach of Rammasun prompted more than 400,000 people to evacuate their homes.

The typhoon was weakened by its interactions with the rugged terrain of the Philippines, but forecasters expect it to reorganize and intensify as it moves over warm waters and encounters favorable wind conditions in the South China Sea. On July 16, Rammasun was moving northwest as a category 1 typhoon. Forecasters expected it to make landfall on China’s Hainan Island as a category 2 or 3 storm on Friday.